


Open Skies

by AceAthena



Series: Open Dialogue [2]
Category: Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator
Genre: Betsy - Freeform, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, M/M, Mentioned Amanda, Mentioned Joseph Christiansen, References to Depression, Terrible Lies, dad jokes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-09
Updated: 2019-01-09
Packaged: 2019-10-07 03:41:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17358263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceAthena/pseuds/AceAthena
Summary: Set Post-Game With Robert"His daughter's presence back in his life had brought up plenty of questions. He hadn’t done much with his life since she had left. The house was still the same just grungier; Aunt Mary and Uncle Joseph were still hilariously miserable; Maple Bay was still tiny and boring. The only thing that was different was Ryan."





	Open Skies

**Author's Note:**

> Sort of a spiritual successor to my fic "Open Up" but reading that is not necessary to enjoy this fic.

The weather in Maple Bay was usually tame throughout the year, the Californian heat hit them every summer but the temperature the rest of the year was usually much milder. Living by the sea does bring in some unexpected things, however. 

It had been overcast all day but when the sun went down the thick black clouds rolled low and quiet. The city lights in the distance illuminated the underside of the cloud cover. Robert should have known something worse was coming when Betsy didn't want to get out of the cab of the truck. But, Habits are hard to break and he needed some time to think. As long as the weather held out he was going to the spot overlooking the city.

Robert sat down in the back of the truck bed and grabbed a piece of wood from the small pile he had collected, and started carving. There was a lot he was trying to process through and he didn't know where to start. Working on his relationship with existence was a long process and he was expecting that, but it was still exhausting. 

Val had gone home over a week ago, a second visit from the first a few months ago, they had parted on what he hoped were better terms. She was a lot like him, stubborn, a bit too witty for her own good and had her mother’s heart, dedicated, loyal. 

He promised to keep in touch, she promised to call. Adding more processes to his life to keep him going. Have to get up to feed the dog, have to not pass out drunk every night, Val might call. It was hard, but it was forwards. 

His daughter's presence back in his life had brought up plenty of questions. He hadn’t done much with his life since she had left. The house was still the same just grungier; Aunt Mary and Uncle Joseph were still hilariously miserable; Maple Bay was still tiny and boring. The only thing that was different was Ryan.

Val had been pretty keen on talking about him. Figured he probably had something to do with her dear-old-deadbeat dad’s sudden improvements. She wasn’t wrong, but that was still not his favourite subject. About his work, his life, his daughter. She didn’t seem very convinced that he was as average as he was describing. The man had no dirty past, bad habits besides an addiction to pistachio ice cream, no he was as clean as they come. In all the believable ways other people he could bring up didn't have. Robert was sure if he looked the worst thing he would find is an unpaid parking ticket and an average credit score. 

And all of that made dancing around this thing between them even worse. Robert knew he couldn’t just be with Ryan. It had so long he wouldn’t even know where to start and someone like Ryan would want a stable relationship, something with feelings, open discussion, commitment. All the things that still made Robert itchy under his collar. Part of him still felt like he should keep people distant and his options open, keeping skipping town on the table. Part of him knew he was never going to leave this damn cul-de-sac and he still didn't deserve any of this. His daughter back in his life, Ryan caring about him, none of it.  
Someone perfect like that just offering to wait for him, and then, sticking around, going bar hopping with him, coming over for dinner, just being his friend. It didn't make any sense to him. 

He let out a long sigh, looking down at the pics of his wood in his hands, what he was carving not really resembling anything over than a smaller, sharper stick then what he had started with. He was about to toss it aside when the first large drop cams down on his head. 

Grumbling he ran his hand through his hair, but it wasn’t the only one, it was starting to come down and rapidly getting worse. He decided that was enough, he had sat drenched in the rain before, along with his thoughts in the downpour, but he was just not in the mood for being cold and drenched tonight. You have to stop punishing yourself. Val had brought that up. She was right, all he was doing was making things worse, there was not martyrdom to be won being an old man out in the rain feeling bad for himself. 

Getting back in the cab of the truck Betsy whined, trying to crawl into his lap. Robert steamed down and kissed her head, setting her back in the passenger seat. “If you tell anyone, you can sleep on the couch.” He threatened and pulled the truck back onto the road. It was a bold lie, Betsy slept wherever she pleased. 

The rain was coming down in sheets before he could even get halfway down the road back into town. It was hard to see anything past about ten yards ahead of him, and even that was fuzzy. The wipers barely able to keep up with the autumn storm. 

“Shit.” He hissed through his grit teeth, there was a loud bump and the truck was jostled and suddenly jerked to the right. Robert slammed on the breaks as his truck pitched into the ditch on the side of the road. “Shit.” He swore again. “Shit!” He slammed his hand into the steering wheel, frightening his dog at the outburst. He leaned back, heart pounding as he stared out the front windshield. Rubbing a hand over his face, Betsy crawled into his lap and nudged at his hand. He stroked over her back, taking a moment to steady his breathing. 

The rain was a loud drum line on the roof of his truck as he moved his dog again and then stepped out of his truck. He was drenched in seconds but he needed to see what happened. The wind had seriously picked up since he had started driving, a large branch must have fallen in the road because it was now lodged in his wheel well. 

“Fuck.” He grumbled, putting his hand on the truck and tried to kick it out. His foot missed on the second swing down and he jerked back. A large gash now ran up his leg, pant leg torn. “Fuck fuck fuck.” He growled as he hopped back into the truck, clutching the steering wheel like he was trying to snap it in half. He drew in a deep breath, counted to three, and then slowly relaxed his hands. He did that again two more times before he reached into the glove compartment to get his first aid kit to bandage up his leg. 

He leaned back once it was done, leg still tucked up next to his chest. He let his head fall back and hit the headrest. He was tempted to just lay his head back and take a nap instead of just dealing with this right now. 

But he had to get Betsy home, and he needed to get his truck back and fixed. He reached down and grabbed his phone. Doubted he was going to get a tow truck this far out of town in the middle of the night, and he didn’t want have to deal with all this insurance stuff anyways. Mary was probably trashed by now, and like hell, he was going to call Joseph. Didn’t really know anybody else on the block that well. 

Who else would answer their phone ridiculously late and wouldn’t just tell him to call the damn tow service? Robert ran a hand over his face and dialled the number. 

“Hey Ryan, yeah… I need a favour.”

🜄

“I thought you were going to ask me to help you bury a body out here or something.” Ryan laughed, umbrella opening as he walked over to where Robert was climbing out of his truck. The headlights of the little hybrid behind them now lighting up the situation. The tire was definitely popped so he wasn’t driving out of here even if he could get the stupid tree branch out. 

“Nah, I was just planning on harvesting your organs.” He said, trying not to snort at that little flash of contemplation that came over Ryan’s face while he processed what Robert had just said, wondering if he was actually joking or not.

“Good luck getting any good money out of them, have sabotaged your plan with a lifetime of living terribly.” Ryan threw back. 

“I think we’ve done this bit before.” Robert chuckled, his mood lifted against his will. Running a hand through his drenched hair. “I uh, I appreciate you coming out to do this.”

Ryan’s mouth opened and then closed again. Probably a smart ass response on his tongue but he didn’t take the low hanging jab. “Yeah, no problem.” He said and motioned back to his car. “Come on, let’s get you back home.” He said, and Robert went back into the cab, Betsy throwing herself into his arms. Robert snorted, ruffling her fur and walked her back to the car with Ryan, who was currently trying to wrangle his umbrella in the worsening wind. 

“Come on.” The man grumbled until the umbrella was wrenched from his grasp and flew off into the darkness. “Fuck.”

“Bud, that’s been my whole night.” He shook his head and clapped Ryan on the shoulder. “Let’s get out of here.” The three of them piled into Ryan’s deceptively spacious car, Robert vaguely feeling bad for getting the interior all wet but that was another problem for the morning. 

The ride back was done in relative silence, Ryan simply humming, barely audible. along to the song he had playing. “When did you start listening to Jimmy Buffet?” Robert asked, lip pulling down as he recognized the next song that came on. 

“About twenty years ago.” Ryan snorted, shooting him a knowing look. The ride back into town was going to take pretty long with the way Ryan was driving, being extra cautious in this awful weather. “You really don’t like Joseph.”

“Nope.” Robert grit his teeth, keeping his tone even and cool. 

“Yeah, I get that,” Ryan replied and reached over to give Betsy’s head a pet. “Amanda is convinced he’s a secret cult leader, and that you’re just waiting for a chance to expose him.”

“I’m sorry Ryan, but… Your daughter knows too much, I’ll have to take care of her.” The car carefully and safely pulled over to the side of the road. Robert was about to ask what was going on until he saw the look on his face. His looked like he had already killed someone and had was more than okay with doing it again

“I don’t care if its a joke, you threaten my daughter one more time and we will not be having this conversation again.” He warned in a low voice. He put on the blinker and pulled back onto the road, getting back up to speed on the highway. The cabin of the car was dead silent for a long stretch of road. 

He liked silence normally, just being able to spend time with someone else without having to fill it with empty chatter. The silence was strangling, he could feel James Buffet himself staring him down from the radio. The longer it went on, the tighter its grip on his throat. He swallowed down the lump, opening his mouth before closing it again, looking out the window.

“You can be scary when you want to be.” He said, and it hung there like it was the noose he was going to jump with before Ryan cut it down.

“Not really when I want to be, it’s ‘people are being mean to Amanda’ and that’s it.” He shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck. “I really wanted to slam on the breaks for effect there but.” He gestured to Betsy in the back who peeked her head up as if on cue. And just like that, the mood mellowed again, Jimmy approved and went back about his business of serenading them. 

“I would appreciate that you didn’t hydroplane your fancy car and murder my dog.” He huffed, relaxing slightly back into his chair. As much as he hated this godforsaken Prius or whatever it was he had he had to admit it was comfortable, and probably a lot safer than his own rust bucket.

“Don’t worry about that, you’re in good hands.” Ryan laughed, turning up his wipers a bit. “I mean, I haven’t done it in a while but I’ve done plenty of stunts in the rain.”

“Stunts?” Robert raised an eyebrow, and Ban glanced at his confused face for a second. “You used to drag race or something?” He asked

“No, like stunts, I was a stuntman for seven years,” Ryan said and Robert stared at him a long, long minute. 

“What.” 

“Yeah, that paid me through college, I quit before Amanda was born.” He shrugged if he was explaining his summer internship at an accounting firm.

“You were a stuntman, and you never mentioned this before.” 

“It never came up.” 

“Every time I talked about loving old movies you never thought about bringing this up.”

“You’re not the only one with secrets Robert.”

“Is this why Craig gives you such a hard time about being out of shape.”

“Haha, exactly yeah, I’ve been out of that game for quite a while.” They pulled into Robert’s driveway, the rain coming down in sheets all around them. “We’ll have to make a run for it.”

“Don’t think I’m letting this go,” Robert warned, turning around to grab Betsy as he undid his seatbelt. 

“I realize that was an unrealistic expectation.” Ryan laughed and then took in a deep breath. They both braced themselves and shoved the doors open, slamming them behind them. 

“WHy did you walk me to the door?” Robert asked as they made it to the awning over the door. Robert patted his pocket, hunting for his keys and then stared at the door for a hard moment. 

“I uh, I didn’t think about it?” He laughed in the most unconvincing lie Robert had ever heard and he played poker with Joseph. Robert grabbed him roughly by the shoulders. Ryan startled, they were still outside, in the cold whipping wind and the rain that was splashing up on their legs. The short sprint from the car to the house had water running down the back of Roberts' neck and off his jacket, he could see it misting on Ryan’s glasses and matting down the horrid maple bay t-shirt he always wore. 

“I left my keys in the truck.”

**Author's Note:**

> Only took me a goddamn year but I finally added a follow up to the first fic.


End file.
